Several months ago Alaska Airlines was running a sale on tickets from Seattle to LAX; prices so low that they were lower than the cheapest rate I had ever flown. Close to 20 years ago (holy smokes, seriously, I started college 19 years ago… wow) the cheapest rate I ever flew was $139 round-trip.

Knowing that I have potential YMV teams in SoCal and my Publisher (Spire) is down in Camarillo, I figured I would have several reasons to be down in SoCal and could take advantage of this airfare.  So I booked it.

About a month ago, I got serious about setting up my calendar for those three days.  I’d fly in on Sunday and out on Wednesday evening, giving me three solid days to conduct business… Then it hit me, Sunday, February 7 was Superbowl Sunday.  When did the Superbowl start (3:15ish), and yep, that’s right when my flight was scheduled.  Great move Brian.

Fortunately for me, there were some open seats on an earlier flight (6 AM…woo, early).  The fun part, I got to watch the Superbowl with my best friend (besides Jesus, Elisabeth and YOU of course) Jeramy and his family.  Good times.

Here’s a quick recap of my three busy days:

Monday: Met with a prominent ministry which sends teams on short term trips to Mexico. Great times.  I then had the opportunity to grab a coffee with Josh, the High School Pastor at Emmanuel Faith, they did a YMV last year and will be the host site for our SoCal Spring Retreat. After some fun times with Josh I got to connect with one of my great friends from College, Scott (aka “Action”).  Lunch with Scott was a blessing.  After lunch I was off to a meeting with the National Network of Youth Ministries.  I introduced/reintroduced an idea I have for them.  A wonderful discussion and the conversation will continue as this idea gains traction.  My evening concluded with a fun meeting with two more college-friends, Mike and Steve.  They are both great basketball minds (Mike a former Laker and Steve a high school/college coach) and have some good ideas on how to use their skills/knowledge to go beyond hoops and use it for the Gospel.

Mike's Rookie Card

Tuesday: I drove up to Valencia late on Monday and had a late-night In-N-Out Burger for dinner (yes, another highlight of the trip), but the main reason was to crash at Jeramy’s hotel (he was speaking both Monday and Wednesday chapels).  Tuesday started with breakfast and a great walk/chat with Jer.  I spent most of the day over in Camarillo at the Publishing office and time with Mike Penberthy developing some ideas for the basketball side of things.  Tuesday night, as I said in my previous post, I got to have dinner with two of my best friends from College.

Wednesday: Breakfast again with Jeramy, then we were off to the college for Chapel.  Fun to see Jer speak.  I had lunch with Jeramy, Mike and Joe (he is in leadership at the Master’s College).  We were able to laugh at memories gone by, but also speak into the vision for the future of that college.  It was a blessing to have spent time with these three friends.

I got to the airport a couple hours early, which was very nice to catch up on a few things that needed to get done (I feel so behind on administrative tasks).  On the way home, I discovered I was sitting next to Sean McDowell (some may know Josh, his Dad).  Fun to meet Sean and get acquainted.

So, there’s my LA-LA-Land experience!  Good times and great potential for some future projects.